Marlborough committee expected to rethink marijuana moratorium

MARLBOROUGH – City officials are rethinking a proposed moratorium on recreational marijuana shops and retailers.

Councilors Peter Juaire and Kathleen Robey suggested the temporary ban this spring after speaking with a number of residents concerned about recreational marijuana shops being located near their neighborhoods. Other councilors voiced concerns about having pot shops open in plazas near other businesses.

The Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee signed off on the ban – which would expire June 30, 2018 – this summer, but the full City Council has not voted on the matter. Robey plans to request the moratorium be referred back to the committee for further discussion of the timing of the ban.

State lawmakers moved late last year to delay the opening of recreational marijuana shops until July 1, 2018. Robey said it might be more practical to delay a potential moratorium until after pot shops can open to get reactions from communities that have such those businesses.

The committee could also decide against a moratorium. Some councilors and residents at a recent public hearing called a moratorium redundant and unnecessary.

“I want to rethink all of it,” said Robey, chairwoman of the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee. “There’s lots of choices we have at this point.”

Robey is unsure when the committee will take up the subject.

A moratorium could give city officials time to potentially place restrictions on where recreational marijuana shops can open. Marlborough officials enacted measures a few years ago preventing medical marijuana shops from being located within 5,000 feet of schools, parks, senior housing, residential districts and drug detox centers.

Several communities have enacted temporary moratoriums, including Ashland and Sudbury. Others, including Holliston, Hopkinton and Westborough, implemented a ban on recreational marijuana businesses.

The recreational marijuana ballot question passed in Marlborough by a count of 9,418 to 8,536. Of the city’s 14 precincts, 12 voted in favor of legalizing recreational pot.

The new recreational marijuana law eliminates criminal penalties for marijuana possession, allowing those 21 and older to have up to 10 ounces in their homes and to carry up to one ounce of the drug outside their residences. The law also allows adults to grow up to six marijuana plants and to give away up to one ounce of pot to another adult free of charge.

Jeff Malachowski can be reached at 508-490-7466 or jmalachowski@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @JmalachowskiMW.